The Travels Of A Fat Bulldog (Travel Literature) - Hardcover

Courtauld, George

9780094756700: The Travels Of A Fat Bulldog (Travel Literature)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0094756708 ISBN 13: 9780094756700

Publisher: Constable, 1996

An account of Courtauld's travels and experiences as a Queen's Messenger, which recounts the two year period in which he voyaged half a million miles to over forty different countries. From the author of AN AXE, A SPADE AND TEN ACRES and ODD NOISES FROM THE BARN.

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Review:

'A diarist almost as compellingly readable as Alan Clark...every page has some passage that makes one want to laugh aloud.' TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT ** 'Excellent... a special pleasure.' SPECTATOR ** 'Lively and hilarious... a thumping good read.' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'A witty and at times bad-tempered travelogue that is sterling stuff.' MAXIM 'Up until his recent retirement, George Courtauld worked for the Foreign Office as a Queen's Messenger. If you're not sure what that is, reading this book will leave you none the wiser, for Courtauld--bound by the Official Secrets Act--confines his subject matter to places and people. This adds an air of mystery to the book, and leaves room for more of the Fat Bulldog's tales. Fans of Courtauld's previous books The Travels of a Fat Bulldog and The Fat Bulldog Roams Again will already know the drill, but will be sad to know that this third instalment is to be the last. Reading this book is like reading choice extracts from a most extraordinary diary. In Zambia, Courtauld is taken out to "spot game" at one of the biggest national parks in the world. His host, one Colonel Hawfinch, describes their guide as an "armed incompetent" and his driver as "too stupid to understand my comments on his wretched driving". This is confirmed when the vehicle stalls before 200 charging buffalo and the guard accidentally disconnects the headlamps. As entertaining as these anecdotes are, what really brings them to life is the author's brilliant use of language. The South African wildebeest, for example, is described as "a ridiculous antelope with a long face and a funny little pair of horns perched on the top of its head like a girl's sunglasses pushed up into her hair.' DAREN KING, AMAZON.CO.UK

About the Author:

Farmer, ex-business man and a Queen's Messenger for the last fourteen years, George Courtauld is a keen amateur of botany, history and the arts in general. He divides his time between his farm in Essex and the rest of the world.

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